Design and Chance
by Hefeweizen
Summary: Ariadne guides Dom through the surreal landscape of his own mind. Ariadne/ Cobb
1. Chapter 1

Till we watch the last low star,  
Let us love and let us take  
Of each other all we are.

On some morning with that star  
One of us shall lie awake,  
Lonely for the other's sake.

-Witter Bynner

He woke up in an empty world.

The ground was fine, powdery ash and the sky was gunmetal grey. He jumped up from the ground, dusted the ash from his clothes and started walking. The only sound was the sigh of the cold wind. Time had no meaning here.

"We live, as we dream- alone," he muttered, and his voice died on the wind.

He wished for lights and people, and found himself in a crowded city street in the drizzling rain. It wasn't quite evening yet, but the neon lights reflected on the wet pavement. He walked against the flow of the passerby; they pushed and shoved against him.

There was a dazzling light ahead of him. He squinted and shaded his eyes against the glare, and it resolved into a massive waterfall that tumbled into the street ahead of him.

Bright mid-day sunlight glinted off the spray of the roaring water. Mossy boulders jutted out of the falls and down either side. The dainty figure of a young woman picked her way carefully along the boulders. She held a parasol to shield herself from the mist, and there was a small, knowing smile on her face. He felt a dizzying rush of emotions at the sight of her.

"Imagine meeting you here," she said ironically.

"Ariadne?"

Her smile widened. "Bingo!"

"Where are we?" he said hoarsely. "I remember being- I was in a dark place."

She rubbed his arm and gave him a concerned look. For some reason he was very aware of the touch. "I don't know about 'where,'" she said. "When I got here the place was empty, so I just started building. I was making a waterfall. Want to see it?"

He took her hand and stepped up onto the boulder with her. _Waterfall _was a massive understatement. They stood in an entire vista of waterfalls that jutted at crazy gravity-defying angles. It was a hot, sunny day and the sky was dotted with lazy cumulous clouds, and the sunlight made rainbows where it caught the spray from the water. Classical stone buildings stood among the falls, and leathery-winged dinosaurs cawed as they circled overhead. The entire scene repeated itself infinite times, but it all somehow fit into his field of vision. Time seemed to stretch and unfold around them.

"I loved the illustrated Dinotopia when I was a kid," she said, by way of explanation. "Waterfall city was always my favorite, so I thought, what if I turned it into a fractal?"

"Never read it," he said. "And how long have you been here?"

She stuck her tongue out and ignored his question. "I forgot what an old man you are. People in _my _generation love that book."

"I'll tell my grandkids you said that," he deadpanned.

"Oookay, father time."

He grinned. For once he was having fun, so he decided to run with it. He splashed her with water from the falls and she shrieked.

"It's on now, mister!" she said. She looped her foot behind his ankle and swept him to the ground. He grabbed her sleeve and pulled her down with him, and they tumbled to the ground together. For a moment, he held her in his arms, their faces inches apart.

She elbowed him in the ribs and scrambled away. To his surprise, he regretted letting her go.

"Hey Cobb, why don't you make something?" She gestured out to the infinite waterfalls. Three suns rose and set behind her.

He sat up. "Like what?"

"The world is your oyster. Make whatever you want."

He made a towering white wall, pockmarked with grey. There was a strong smell of saltwater around them. They stood on a pearl the size of a house.

"I didn't mean literally make the world into an oyster."

"But that's what you literally said," he said innocently. She shot him a pointed look.

"How's this?" he said, and built an arch leading off into space.

She leaned back to get a better look. "It looks like a blueprint. I'm starting to think you're more logical than imaginative."

"All right then, wait a minute." He built a flight of warm cherry wood stairs, then took her hand and led her up the stairs. As they walked the arch became a bridge leading them over the waterfalls. Windows appeared on their left hand side, showing a cityscape at dusk.

"City's a nice touch," she said nonchalantly.

"Why don't we have a look around," he said.

Suddenly there was a sleek glass door on their left. Cobb held open the door and they passed through to an enclosed glass walkway that ended at the top floor of the nearest skyscraper.

The glass on all sides vanished, except for tiny little stepping stones of glass hanging in midair. The wind was fierce at this height.

"What are you _doing_?" he yelled over the wind.

"Making things more interesting!" She took a running leap and just barely landed on the next square.

"Christ," he muttered. He tried not to look down or feel dizzy, but it felt like the edge was drawing him closer. His palms started to sweat and he wished for a cigarette.

Ariadne twirled a pack of cigarettes between her first two fingers. She gave him a devious smile.

I was having trouble sorting out the next chapter of my other story, and wrote this in the mean time. It started as a really long one-shot that's turning into two or three chapters. I think Ariadne is channeling Death a little… maybe it's the parasol. Too cheerful?

Playlist:

Waterfall City- Empire of the Sun, Country

City at dusk- The Klaxons, Golden Skans


	2. Chapter 2

Ariadne nimbly leapt to the next stepping stone and turned to face him. She was silhouetted against the building's flourescent lights, and the wind whipped her hair. The effect was unnerving.

Cobb took a deep slow breath. "Get ahold of yourself, man," he thought. "She's a twenty-something girl and _you're_ the scared one?" He shut his eyes tight and jumped.

Time seemed to slow down. His foot had barely left the ground when he realized he wasn't going to make it. The bottom dropped out of the world.

Ariadne's mouth formed a small "o" and her eyes went wide. She made a graceful swan dive off the edge.

Something was wrong with the physics. She was gaining on him. There was a fiercely determined look in her eyes.

She hurtled into him and grabbed him by the shoulder just as they were about to hit the ground. They tumbled and rolled onto something soft, and he laid there for a minute feeling winded. She laughed out loud and impulsively pulled him into a tight hug. It wasn't a bad feeling.

He drew a shaky breath. "No more making things interesting," he said. "My poor old heart can't take it."

"I guess you'll be wanting one of these now?" She offered him a cigarette, which he cupped in his hands and lit. "By the way, that's a disgusting habit," she said conversationally.

Dom took a deep, satisfying drag off the cigarette. "No it's not. It's stress relieving."

"I'm stressed out. Can I have one?"

"Don't you dare." He tried to stand up and found himself sticking to the ground.

"I hope you like cotton candy, because we'll probably have to eat our way out," said Ariadne. There was a three feet thick blanket of it on the ground.

"You're on your own," said Dom. He offered her a hand up and a clump of the stuff stuck to her jacket. After he let go, he still felt the pressure of her hand on his.

A soft rain began to fall, and the cotton candy melted away. "Come on, Cobb." Ariadne led the way through the sliding glass doors.

They walked into a sleek, modern lobby made of polished marble and glass. She walked a little ahead, her eyes darting around the room. There were fossilized shells in the smooth surface of the marble.

Ariadne ran her hand along a nautilus shell in the wall. "How did you end up here?" she asked.

He turned to look at her with a start. "I- I don't remember." The walls shook and a shower of plaster fell from the ceiling.

She took his hand and tugged him toward the elevator. It was an old-fashioned elevator with a metal grille. They started to move up.

"You know how I got here?" she said. She absently rubbed her thumb over his hand.

They reached the top floor and stepped out into bright sunlight. Ariadne was in shadow, profiled against the glare of the sun and framed by the elevator door.

"How?"

She looked all around them. "The ocean," she said softly. The carpeted floor of the elevator was covered in sand, which gave way to a wide sloping beach. The air was full of the sound of surf and seagulls.

"You came here by way of the ocean?" He felt a tug of memory, but it was just jumbled impressions, nothing solid.

She shaded her eyes. "No. I don't like this place. Let's go." She took his hand and led him back to the elevator.

When they returned to the lobby, it showed signs of age. Water dripped from the ceiling and trees grew up through cracks in the floor. One of the walls was crumbled and leaned precariously. This did not surprise him.

They walked outside to find that a forest had grown up in the city. The trees and the buildings were integrated together as if the trees were architecture or the buildings were organic.

Dom raised his eyebrows. "Is this your doing?"

She shrugged. "In a way," she said uncomfortably.

They spent ages exploring the city, which was a mix of medieval stone and postmodern glass. It always seemed to be late afternoon or sunset, which had to be Dom's doing.

Sometimes when they turned a corner, they would suddenly face the ocean at dawn or an overgrown garden under a starry night. Ariadne would shrug apologetically, and her mouth would quirk into a small, knowing smile.

He found himself wanting to see that smile more often. He would purposely build incomplete dreams, like a building with no first floor, and she would provide the missing piece and give him that smile. He liked this collaboration, and he liked the meandering nature of time in the city. He had no idea how long they had been there; it could have been a few minutes or a few years.

One day they walked through a park after sunset, and she acted on impulse. She grabbed his hand and planted a kiss at the corner of his mouth. Then she dropped his hand like it was on fire.

She jammed her hands in her pockets, blushing furiously. "Don't make a big deal or anything," she said, as if he had been the one to kiss her.

He held his hands up in surrender. "Wouldn't dream of it."

"Your puns are the worst."

"Sorry?"

"Wouldn't… _dream _of it, Cobb?"

"We're dreaming?" His face was carefully unreadable.

She moved toward him and touched his shoulder. "Oh, Dom," she said softly, in a tone of regret. "I thought you knew."

She sank onto a bench at the edge of the cobbled path. Crickets chirped around them, and fireflies flickered around them in the dusky air. She snapped her fingers and opened her hand, and a new firefly floated away into the night. "I'm in Paris right now. You're probably at home in California."

"Is this a shared dream?" he said hoarsely.

She gave him a shrewd look. "What do you think?"

He joined her on the bench. She shrugged and gave him that knowing smile.

"Then I have nothing to lose," he said. He cupped her face in his hands and softly pressed her lips to hers. She closed her eyes and her lips parted, and he tilted his head to deepen the kiss, which made her gasp. He moved his hands to the small of her back and pulled her closer.

A breeze blew past them and he began to dissipate like dust. She sprang up from the bench.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

His lips moved inaudibly, and he turned into shimmering firefly lights that swirled along the wind. She was left standing there, looking up at him in shock.

The morning sunlight slanted through the blinds. Dom lay flat on his back and watched the ceiling fan, his breathing uneven. "God," he said, and punched his pillow.

He got up, went to the bathroom, and splashed himself in the face with cold water. He got a look at himself in the mirror- unshaven and pale.

The house was strangely silent. There was a note on the kitchen table:

"Dom,

Took Philippa and James to the zoo. I left coffee for you. Try to have a nice quiet day at the house.

-Miles."

Dom fixed himself a cup of coffee and sat at the table, rubbing his temples. The digital clock in the kitchen blinked 12:13. The quiet was deafening.

He would have loved to wake up to his childrens' smiles. They would have been a welcome- distraction.

He sat up straighter. A distraction?

Miles had been taking the children out a lot lately. Dom realized how he must look to the children- they would think he was sick; they would worry. Miles was doing what was best for them. He'd have to thank Miles later.

The only sound was the ticking of the clock. The hands moved to 3.

The phone rang loudly, and he jumped. "Hello?"

There was a quiet voice on the other end. "Was it real for you, too?" she said.

He held the phone closer. "Was what real?" he said breathlessly.

"I know this is crazy." Dom could almost see her twirling the phone cord. "I had a weird dream last night."

"Ariadne, so did I."

"Oh." There was a long pause. "I wish you were here."

"Can we talk about it?" he said.

"I'll do my best, but it'll be a one-sided conversation."

"What?"

"Cobb, you're still dreaming."

The morning sunlight slanted through the blinds. Dom lay flat on his back and watched the ceiling fan, his breathing uneven.

He sat up in bed and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It had been six months since the last time he'd used a PASIV device. Six long, dreamless months. The withdrawal was still an uphill battle every day.

Ariadne's voice echoed in his head. "You're dreaming..."

He hadn't expected this. A real dream. It was strange that it would be about her, when they hadn't spoken in all that time. Strange, but fitting. Maybe it was time to call her.

Dom smiled and picked up the phone.

* * *

Dom and Ariadne kiss- Royksopp- Sparks

* * *

About time I finished this up. The story got stuck in a rut because at first I wanted them to really be in limbo. I hope this works better.


End file.
